Wizards of the Coast released the D&D Next final playtest packet, apparently the last version of D&D Next you can get for free before WotC will try to sell you the books next year. There is just one fatal flaw with that plan: Nothing in that final playtest packet makes me want to buy D&D Next. And I am not alone. After all this playtesting, player feedback, and development, D&D Next still feels like D&D Previous, an incongruous mix of game mechanics from 2nd, 3rd, and 4th edition. Designed to please everybody, sure to please none.

I'll just stick with 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons. But I am afraid that Wizards of the Coast will see that there are too many people like me out there, and will try to twist our arms to get us to buy the new edition. They will then probably shut down all online support for 4th edition, the Compendium, the Character Builder, the Monster Builder, and all the other stuff that makes life easier for a dungeon master.

Well, they can't take my books away. But I'm really afraid for the future of my game and Dungeons & Dragons in general. D&D Next looks more and more like a really bad idea.

Been hearing some good things about 13th Age too, that it's an improvement over D&D while keeping the d20 core.

I'm attracted by the story/roleplaying aspects with rules attached - the concept of Icons where player characters are linked from the very beginning with an important NPC or faction in the setting, and The One Unique Thing that makes each PC stand out and be memorable.

If like me you like 4th Edition you will probably like 13th Age. It is not really a replacement, but it is nice if you want a simpler 4th Edition-like game that assumes no maps.

You can also pretty easily houserule 4th Edition. I have removed the emphasis on tactical combat, reduced monster hit points so that combat ends faster, and let players do a lot of creative things not spelled out by their powers.

I think we will see more 4th Edition clones in the future (I am kicking around one myself), as 13th Age is good, but not necessarily better than 4th Edition (in my opinion).

That's highly doubtful considering Pathfinder was created to be a supported alternative to 4E.

Why would that make it doubtful? Do you really think Paizo gives a shit about the edition wars? Pathfinder was created to sell a product to players who got left standing out in the rain by WotC when they created 4E. It would only be logical if Paizo does exactly the same again and creates a product for those who are abandoned by WotC when 5E comes out.

I think that D&D has reached a point where there isn't much need for new editions. Wizards should make all editions available online for a one time fee. Maybe have a monthly fee option that gives incremental updates (small rule changes, correct spelling errors).

I'm afraid I have to agree...the GSL for 4E wouldn't allow Paizo to market an alternative "4.75E" like they did for 3.5 with Pathfinder. In fact it's generally regarded as one of the reasons 4E ultimately stumbled, due to the rejection of easy 3rd party support with 4th edition due to the GSL language. Even I, who liked 4E and published for it, got around this issue by using the OGL to create content that was coincidentally compatible with 4E without also getting tied into the GSL language.

D&D 5E looks good to me, but I'm very edition agnostic when it comes to D&D. I've played and enjoyed every iteration of the game to date, and will remain loyal. New editions luckily come out in time for me to want a change, and I'm burned out on both 4E and Pathfinder so 5E is hitting my interest at just the right time.

The goal, IMO, should be to serve as a reasonable set of base rules for mix-and-matching things. Have a group of players who prefer different editions? DDN would ideally be the best compromise, and would hopefully provide good guidelines for adapting a character you designed with whatever edition in mind to run in DDN. Of course, you still have to figure out a campaign that will work for the various playstyles, which would depend on finding some common ground: you obviously can't run a campaign that is simultaneously focused both on highly tactical combat and also on abstract TOTM where combat is fairly quick and designed to be only a modest part of the adventure.

But I feel like DDN is a workable set of base rules, and it will hopefully look better to people who want more detailed rules for (whatever) as more books are delivered.